EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIAL MEDIUM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDA SPECIES

CHROMagar Candida (CHROMagar, France) was evaluated as a medium for th e presumptive identification and isolation of yeasts using 1,537 isola tes of medically important yeasts, including 970 Candida albicans, 165 Candida parapsilosis, 131 Candida glabrata, 62 Candida guilliermondii , 35 Candida krusei, 32 Candida tropicalis, 31 Rhodotorula rubra, 23 T richosporon spp. (17 Trichosporon beigelii), 17 Candida famata, 16 Can dida pelliculosa, In Pichia efchelsii, 10 Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 8 Candida lusitaniae, 7 Cryptococcus spp., and 20 isolates of other Cand ida spp. After 48 h of incubation at 37 degrees C, the sensitivity and specificity were, respectively, 99% and 100% for Candida albicans, 93 .8% and 99.1% for Candida tropicalis, and 100% and 100% for Candida kr usei. In addition to colony color, other colony characteristics were i mportant for identification of some species, such as rough colonies in Candida krusei isolates or the halo around the colonies of Candida tr opicalis. A great variety of colors was observed among species other t han Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, and Candida krusei. For iden tification purposes, CHROMagar Candida medium has an accuracy similar to that of germ-tube tests and chlamydospore development tests for Can dida albicans and to that of the ATE ID32C kit (API, bioMerieux, Franc e) for Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei.